Photographing Honey Possums
South-West Western Australia is one of the worlds richest biodiverse hotspots with a incredible amount of unique flora & fauna thats crammed into one corner of Australias largest state. One unique creature & has to be one of the cutest is the Honey Possum (Tarsipes rostratus). Being the worlds only true nectar-eating marsupial, these little guys pretty much exclusively live on nectar & a bit of pollen so require nectar rich flowers all year round. Something the flora rich south west provides in abundance, although sadly these days due to land clearing for farming are now mostly restricted to national parks & reserves.
Licking the pollen from a Calothamnus flower
And did I mention little! Adults weigh around 7 to 10 grams with a body length between 60 to 85mm while there prehensile tail is 85 to 100mm long. There tongue is a impressive 18mm long & like nectar feeding birds have bristles on the tips of there tongue to collect the nectar. Males are smaller then females but have very large testes & the largest sperm of any mammal in the world.
Feeding on a Regelia velutina flower
While mainly nocturnal they can be active during the day, particularly early/mid morning & mid/late afternoon, even throughout the day in cool cloudy weather. Which was very handy as I could get my sunrise/sunset landscape shots in before changing lenses & focusing on the possums. During my visit I found them to be very active both early/mid morning & mid/late afternoon with very few out in the middle of the day. The young ones can be easily spooked but otherwise there main focus is nectar so if you don’t make any sudden movements/noise theres no issues getting close to them, I even had a few run in-between my legs while they were chasing one another. The main issue was getting a shot that included there eyes as when feeding on the Calothamnus flowers there whole face would often be obscured.
Not only do they need plants but plants need them too as they are excellent pollinators shown by the amount of pollen on this ones head
I started out with my 150-600mm lens but had to quickly change to my 70-300mm lens as i found 300mm was a pretty good length & shooting handheld the lighter lens was much more comfortable. As with all my photography including wildlife i used single shot instead of burst mode. Apart from when they have there head in a flower they rarely stop, all that sugar & a insatiable appetite! So I would set myself up close to some flowering shrubs which at the time of my visit was mainly a Calothamnus species with there bright red flowers. I would never have to wait long for some to appear although some of the New-Holland honeyeaters would swoop & harass them a bit but this didnt occur often. It was such a joy to watch them for long periods & to see some of the positions they get themselves in to reach each flower makes for some great photo opportunities.
They have a short life-span of 1-3 years
All these images were taken from a walking track, I did not go off track. Phytotophthora dieback is a plant pathogen that is a big problem in south-west WA & kills a number of native plant species. It can easily be spread by soil from your shoes so is important visitors stay on the marked walking tracks. Just one of the many threats to these incredible & fascinating little creatures. You dont need any special gear or tramping around off track to photograph Honey Possums, just a bit of patience.
Scientific name: Tarsipes rostratus – rostratus meaning Beaked in latin, referring to there long snout